The measurement of starlight : two centuries of astronomical photometry
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Bibliographic Information
The measurement of starlight : two centuries of astronomical photometry
Cambridge University Press, 1996
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Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Astronomical photometry is the science of measuring the brightness and colours of stars and other celestial objects. It is a technique at the very heart of modern astrophysics. This authoritative volume traces the fascinating historical development of astronomical photometry - from visual techniques at the time of William Herschel in the 1780s, through to the birth of photometry with charge-coupled devices in the 1970s. In this intriguing survey, we see how the advent of new technology has revolutionized the science of photometry at each stage of its development, and what dramatic advances have been achieved, despite several major disasters - especially in the practice of photographic photometry. This book also clearly illustrates the critical relationship between the development of a science and the technology it uses. This volume provides professional astronomers with a valuable guide to the background and development of this fundamental technique. It will also be of great interest to amateur astronomers and historians of the physical sciences.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of illustrations
- 1. Early stellar magnitudes
- 2. Visual estimates of stellar magnitudes and colour
- 3. Visual photometry
- 4. Photographic photometry, 1839-1922
- 5. The origins of photoelectric photometry
- 6. Photometry at longer wavelengths
- 7. Photographic photometry from 1922
- 8. Photometry and the birth of astrophysics
- 9. Photoelectric photometry with the photomultiplier tube
- 10. Photometry with electronic area detectors
- Sources of illustrations
- Index of names
- Index of star names
- Index of subjects.
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